Got up at 6AM to light the chimney. Let it go for about a half hour, then put it in the grill and let that warm up until 7AM. While I was waiting I got to make some coffee, put on some cartoons for the kids (Miles From Tomorrowland was today's pick), and got the pork butt covered in Memphis Dust.
By about 7AM the temp was creeping above 230, so I put the pork on the grill.
Only bad news for now is that I may have started too few coals, I needed both the top and bottom vents fully open to get the temp above 225 before 7:00. Now the temp is constantly creeping up, so I'll have to keep an eye on it and close things down before it climbs too much. I put it on 20 minutes ago, and I have the top half closed and the bottom 2/3 closed because the temp is 244 right now. Hopefully it'll level off before too long.
Thanks. Right now I'm thinking putting it on around 7:00, my kids normally wake up a little after 6:00 so I can start the coals then. And the coals should be fine, I'm in the high desert.
I'll definitely aim for preventing getting done late and then tent it with foil if I need to.
First, your charcoal looks like enough to last plenty of time, I use a pyramid of 3 or a square of 4 and can get 6+ hours easily.
Second, I put the butt away from the heat, then every hour or so rotate it to be directly across from the coals. You can make your snake go nearly all the way around, just keep rotating and make sure you don't light both ends.
Having both the top and bottom just barely open keeps me at 225 but shoot a little higher and you shouldn't have to spend more than 2 minutes per hour monitoring it.
Third, if you don't wrap I would guess a butt that small would be done in 8 hours or less. Cambro time is delicious time, don't hesitate keeping it in there for 2-3 hours.
I would probably aim for 8 am start and if things go haywire and you aren't 170 by 2 wrap it for an hour or so and don't feel bad!
Lastly if those coals are in the Weber waiting for morning, you might want to rethink that depending on the weather where you are. I did that and overnight it got colder and my coal got some dew, I fought keeping that wet stuff going all day and it was miserable.
Edit to add, if it is getting done too fast do you know what will happen if you take it off, tent it with foil and let it sit a bit? Nothing, just keep it above 140.
Suggestions for the n00b - Perfect Pulled Pork in progress
So I'm a n00b just trying to learn how to make BBQ on my Weber Kettle, and what better way to learn than to have people that actually know what they're doing critique me? I got a few good suggestions last time I tried this with Last Meal Ribs, so I figured I'd try again with Perfect Pulled Pork. Although this time I'm not already finished, I'm planning on updating as I go along so people can add suggestions while it's still cooking.
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The problem with having two children under 5 is that I usually have too much to do to spend all day watching the grill. But tomorrow is Father's Day, so if I want pulled pork, and I want to spend all day cooking it, that's what I'm doing. And the kiddie pool is all filled and warming up so I won't completely ignore the kids.
I got a 3.9 lb pork butt at the butcher shop. I was mildly annoyed because I asked for a 4-5 lb butt, and all they have was over 6.5 lbs, so they offered to cut it down for me. But they managed to get it under 4 lbs when they cut it, and I didn't want to ask them to cut up another one. It probably won't matter, we'll have leftovers anyway. But I was hoping to keep it close to the 5 lbs mentioned in the recipe for my first time out.
This is it rotated on the side from the last picture, with the fat cut off and kosher salt applied to dry brine. It will sit about 16 hours before I put it on the grill. I did cut a decent chunk of fat off, so now it's even lower then 3.9 lbs.
And here is my kettle, all set up in a snake with room for the water pan. I got it ready to go this evening so I don't have to do it in the morning when I could still be in bed. From playing around with shorter cooks, I think this should be about right to stick between 225-250 for most of the time.
So I'm all set to update as I start in the morning, but I have a couple questions for anyone that happens to cruise by in the mean time:
Anyone have any idea how long this should take to cook? It's a small butt, so I'm thinking it might take even less time than the 8-12 hours mentioned in the recipe. I'm planning on having it ready in the early evening for dinner, and I do plan on using a beer cooler as a Faux Cambro, but I'd like to avoid having it sit in there for several hours. It's a battle in my head between not having to get up super early on the weekend and worrying about it not being ready by dinner time. If I put it on at 6 AM and it's approaching 203 at 1:00 I'm going to feel stupid.
Does anyone have good suggestions on how to reload the charcoal in the snake when the current stuff runs out? I think the stuff I have in their should make it most of the time, but I don't think it will last the whole time. Do I just take the top grate out and, rotate the water pan around, and add more charcoal to the end? Or is there a quicker, easier way? I put off getting a Smokenator once I heard about the Slow 'n Sear, but I haven't gotten either yet.
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